60007: High Speed Chase is my first of the 2013 Police sets and the subtheme is off to a solid start, but Police fans should be aware that 2013's sets definitely represent something of a "reboot" for the subtheme. The set includes three vehicles, three minifigures and several neat accessories.

Box/Instructions

This is a midsized set in a midsized box. The box art is definitely attractive, perhaps actually improving a bit on the look of the red sports car that is included. Each of the vehicles and its driver are packaged in separately numbered bags and each is the subject of its own instruction booklet.

Parts

One of the changes in the Police subtheme for 2013 is a shift from bright blue as the "police color" to earth blue. As such, you pick up a few basic bricks in that color and the police marking stickers have that color as their background. The set also get a dozen tank tread pieces that serve as a spike puncture roadblock. The SUV windshield is an uncommon element. Another piece that caught my attention was the 1x3 red tile, two of which are included. I don't recall ever seeing a 1x3 tile before.

Minifigures

The "star attraction" in this set is Chase McCain, the unhelmeted police officer pictured above and the main playable character in the upcoming LEGO City Undercover for the Wii U. McCain is otherwise so far available only as a premium to push preorders of his video game, so this is a welcome opportunity for non-gamer fans to get McCain in physical form. McCain is joined by a motorcycle cop and a masked thief who is apparently making off with $300 and a gold bar. Both police officers feature printed leg pieces, and all three minifigures boast back printing.

Again, the reboot of the Police subtheme is apparent in the police officers' uniforms, which do not match the police minifigures going back at least to 2008's 7744: Police Headquarters. If you're aiming for a roughly uniform police force, you may not want to mix the two uniforms. On the other hand, the last police uniform was certainly dressier in appearance, so that explanation may get you past the mismatch. Set 3661: Bank & Money Transfer included a minifigure in a light blue police uniform shirt, which would mix better with Chase McCain and his colleagues in the revamped subtheme.

The build

This set offers a fairly positive build experience. Even the motorcycle, usually an unchanging build makes interesting use of a couple angle plates to give the back end of the cycle a little more heft than it might otherwise have had.

The SUV is where the real fun in this build is to be found. The designer eschewed the large vehicle modified plate in favor of a number of standard plates to build the base of the vehicle:

I appreciate the use of more standard parts and may try to duplicate this method in future "large vehicle MOCs.

The completed model

The motorcycle is a solid variation on an old classic. The set uses a fence piece with decals and a couple round trans-blue 1x1 plates to create a road block, an interesting use of a well-known piece.

The SUV looks wonderful. If I have one nit to pick with that vehicle it is that the tires are too large for the fenders over the wheel wells used.

My only major complaint with this set is with the red sports car. First off, I'm a bit sick of red cars in LEGO sets. I'd love to see more variety in car colors in LEGO City. Second, though, I just don't think the car looks all that good. It's 6 studs wide, and the general design, which would perhaps have looked good at 4 or even 5 studs wide looks somewhat squat at 6. The passenger compartment seems too long and the front end too short. Finally, a sticker goes on the hood and adds very little to the look of the car. While the too-small fender only slightly mars the appearance of the SUV, the completed sports car model has little to recommend it.

Summary

60007: High Speed Chase is a worthy kick-off to the 2013 Police subtheme revamp. Three vehicles, three minifigures and some accessories seem a generous allotment at the $30 price point, and 283 pieces comes awfully close to the the 10 cents per piece that I like to see. Sixteen extra pieces close the gap almost entirely. If you treat the ugly sports car not as a failure of the official design but as an invitation to rebuild into a nicer looking car, there may be no reason at all for a City fan to pass this set by.